Saturday, March 14, 2015

Woyome has never been my client — Tony Lithur

Tony Lithur

A legal practitioner, Mr Tony Lithur, has denied rumours he has been defending businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome in court.

“This rumour, which has found its way onto radio stations and other
media platforms including social media, is completely false. In any
case, Woyome himself has stated publicly that I have a personal vendetta
against him,” counsel noted.

According to Mr Lithur, his law firm which had the current
Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Marietta Brew
Appiah-Opong, as a partner, had on all occasions defended Woyome’s
opponents.

Reacting to the said rumours in an interview with the Daily Graphic
in Accra yesterday, Mr Lithur said “our firm has handled four cases
against Woyome. Two have been settled and two are still pending in
court”.

Woyome gains freedom

Woyome was on Thursday, March 12, 2015 acquitted and discharged on
two counts of defrauding by false pretence and causing financial loss to
the state.

The High Court, presided over by Mr Justice John Ajet-Nasam took on
the Attorney-General’s Department for paying GH¢51.2 million to Woyome
in 2010 only to turn around to prosecute him for fraud.

It said the prosecutors failed to prove the ingredients of fraud to warrant the court to convict Woyome.

The Attorney-General’s Department has expressed its disagreement with
the judgement and has since indicated its intention to appeal.

Where from rumours

The court’s decision has sparked public outcry and in the midst of it
Mr Lithur and Mrs Appiah-Opong have been aligned with Woyome.

“I do not know where this falsehood of us defending Woyome is coming
from. It is amazing how people can sit and conjecture falsehood only in
the name of what?” Mr Lithur queried and advised persons engaged in what
he termed “vile propaganda” to stop.

Cases in question

“We have never represented Woyome in any matter. In all matters, we have been against him,” Mr Lithur said.

Enumerating the cases his firm had handled against Woyome, Mr Lithur
said his firm was representing the Managing Editor of the Enquirer
newspaper, Mr Raymond Archer, in the case in which Woyome sued Mr Archer
over ownership of the paper.

“The second was a defamation suit Woyome filed against the Enquirer
but it was thrown out after we raised preliminary legal objections.

“Woyome has since re-filed the defamation suit but is yet to pursue it,” Mr Lithur explained.

Explaining further, counsel said his client, Mr Ray Smith, sued
Woyome for a $1 million loan Woyome took from him to run his (Woyome’s)
foundation.

According to counsel, Mr Smith resorted to the court when Woyome allegedly refused to pay back the said amount.

Mr Lithur continued, “There are correspondences between Woyome and us to prove we had acted against him.”

Citing another instance of disagreement between his client and
Woyome, counsel said Mr Smith was indisposed and as a result of that he
(Mr Smith) appointed Woyome as an alternate director in Mpowapak but
“Woyome took more than GH¢200,000 from the company’s account resulting
in my client pursuing him to pay back. He has since paid back all the
money to my client”.

Austro-Invest

In the fourth case, Mr Lithur said Austro-Invest contacted him to
make claims against Woyome after Austro-Invest had given Woyome the
power of attorney to follow up on the GH¢51.2 million, which had been
duly paid.

Austro-Invest had worked with a team that negotiated for the 1.1 billion euro facility from Bank Austria.

“I filed the suit on behalf of Austro-Invest but I advised the
company to withdraw the suit after hell broke loose on the said GH¢51.2
million,” Mr Lithur added, and advised the public to make statements
from informed positions.

Mr Lithur did not indicate the action he would take if the “vile
campaign” did not stop, but warned “this vile campaign to tag my firm
and I as Woyome’s allies will not wash. It will be in the interest of
those championing those lies to stop with immediate effect”.